Ubica evicted :(

Fridaynight Ubica, the squat that has kindly given a physical space to PUSCII, got evicted. With the eviction, an end has come to one of the last autonomous spaces in Utrecht. When it was squatted in 1992, the building had suffered from a fire that had ravaged most of the inside. With a lot of hard work and investment, the squatters have managed to renovate the building in a DIY spirit. During its 21 year squatted existence, Ubica became not only a home to many people, it has also offered space to a wide variety of social and political activities. There was PUSCII, vegan restaurant Black Lentil, infoshop Schism, swopshop Tranendal, anarchist library De Zwarte Wurm, Food not Bombs, art-expositions, concerts, film evenings, a free hostel for touring bands, a meetingspace for political groups, cargo-bikes to be borrowed, a workspace for motorized cargo-bikes, etc. etc. The eviction was preceded by a messy series of several courtcases between the owner, the aspiring new owner and the squatters. The current owner, Vloet, is a notorious realestate criminal, infamous and convicted for his abuse of tennants with bizarre extremes including the smearing of feces on the walls of their rooms. Last year, Vloet made an arrangement with Klaassen, who wishes to buy the Ubica and turn it into a fancy hotel. However, after Klaassen acquired all the necessary permits for the rebuilding, Vloet stated he no longer wanted to sell the Ubica. In the meantime, the sale was already used as a ground for eviction. Yet another courtcase, which is planned for next week, is to determine who will become or remain owner of the Ubica... The eviction itself was a fine display of burning streets, fireworks, paintbombs and barricades made of steel and concrete that kept the cops busy for over 15 hours. Excellent diy footage can be found on the Pinknoise website and there's a gallery with pictures here. Sadly, it has left us with 10 comrades imprisoned. Solidarity actions will be announced on indymedia. PUSCII will be organising its events in the ACU (Voorstraat 71) from now on.